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In many ways, it feels like Neil Gaiman needs no introduction. His surge in popularity in recent years has been, well, pretty hard earned. American Gods, Stardust and Coraline have been some of my favourite stories I've read recently, but I'm typically less charmed by his short fiction. Down to a Sunless Sea is beautiful in a way that reminds me more of poetry than of a story, and that sort of works for it. This tale of a woman who's lost everything to the water and the men who try to tame it. It's good and perfect for these Brisbane rainy days."I told him not to go to sea. I'm your mother, I said. The sea won't love you like I love you, she's cruel. But he said, Oh Mother, I need to see the world. I need to see the sun rise in the tropics, and watch the Northern Lights dance in the Arctic sky, and most of all I need to make my fortune and then, when it's made I will come back to you, and build you a house, and you will have servants, and we will dance, mother, oh how we will dance...
The Walking Dead came back this week and I feel like I've got zombies on the brain after it's first good episode in a while. It was kind of nice that it coincided pretty well with me reading Becca at the End of the World by Shira Lipkin. A really lovely mother-daughter story that plays out against a backdrop of the apocalypse, Lipkin captures beautifully the sort of intensity that comes with any sort of loss, particularly the sudden, undead kind. It's really good.I pull her into my arms and she falls apart, huge gasping gulping sobs, and I fall apart along with her — I don’t have to be strong for her this time, not now. This is slow, this is so slow, this is agonizing, but I cannot kill my daughter, not when she is still my daughter. Even though the grey is creeping up to her shoulder, down to her wrist. Even though she has begun to reek.
The nights would end with the wait staff in the parking lot, sitting on a car and drinking beer as we counted our tips. The boys would undo their bow ties and suddenly look weary and handsome. I would change into soft jeans and throw pennies at the dumpster. I was aching for what came next.I'm a bit of a diehard when it comes to Amy Poehler. Her drive and talent and general views and values are enormously inspirational for me personally and generally give me all the feels. Her piece for The New Yorker, 'Take Your Licks' is about her summer between highschool and college and is hugely emotive and really illustrates that tread-water feeling of waiting for the next big step. It's pretty wonderful.
